HATCHING.] 



POULTET. 



[HATCHINa. 



at handjwhere the liens have been sitting be\-ond 

 a week. Eemove the eggs from under each hen, 

 and carefully guard against allowing them to 

 be shaken, or kept away from the fowl long 

 enough to get in the slightest degree cool. 

 Hold each egg to the round hole, and the opaque 

 germ of the chick will be quite perceptible, as 

 well as the delicately-traced blood-vessels upon 

 the shell, which are intended to nourish the 

 embryo until they dry up at the expiration of 

 the period of incubation— as a hint to the 

 chicken that it had better issue forth, and 

 scratch for its own living in this world of orni- 

 thological as well as human cares. Eggs which 

 appear to have undergone no change must be 

 removed. It is better to make up each nest 

 to nine good eggs ; and if any hens should, by 

 these manipulations, be left at liberty, they 

 may have fresh batches of eggs given to them. 

 It will do no injury to any good steady sitter to 

 remain in the nest thirty days, or even a little 

 longer. 



Except in this one examination of the eggs, 

 which must be conducted in the gentlest man- 

 ner possible, never interfere with the sitter. 



The day before that day three weeks on 

 which the eggs were set, especial care should 

 be taken to notice the nest when the hen 

 leaves to feed, and to observe if any of the 

 eggs are chipped. When hatching-time arrives, 

 the bill of the expanding chick presses up one 

 spot of the shell, with starry cracks diverging 

 from it. If there is no appearance of this kind, 

 the hen may safely be left until the twenty- 

 first day, as the chickens generally require no 

 feeding for the first twenty-four hours. The 

 chick, from this first spring in the shell, spreads 

 the cracks by its own force alone, until it 

 opens a door for itself. Then it lies, a little 

 wet and weakly thing, beneath its mother's 

 warm feathers for some time. When twenty 

 hours old or so, it begins to eat. Then we 

 think it best to place before the mother, in the 

 nest, a tiny basin filled with moistened oat- 

 meal or barley meal. We would give this 

 in preference to a chopped egg, as some do, 

 because most likely the mother will set to 

 work herself, and devour that greedily ; and if 

 she does her duty, she is worthy of her hire ; 

 that is, her share (sometimes the lion's cer- 

 tainly) of the good food provided for the 

 chicks. When this is gone, a chopped, hard- 

 854 



boiled egg, mixed up wnth stale bread-crumbs, 

 and a little water, should be put into a very 

 shallow pan, as the chicks soon want to drink. 



" Eor about twenty-four hours after birth," 

 says Mr. Eichardson, " chiclis not only do well 

 enough without extraneous nourishment, but; 

 will be far more likely to .thrive if let aloue. 

 The next day they may be fed with crumbs of 

 bread and eggs, boiled hard and chopped fine. 

 Eor the first four days they require food at 

 least hourly, to supply the rapid increase in 

 bulk and feathers. Damp is fatal to them. 

 Small-grained oatmeal, gives raw, or slightly 

 scalded, and suffered to cool down to a very 

 low degree of tepidity, will be found useful 

 and good. Do not forget that, in all prob- 

 ability, thirst will be present before hunger; 

 and there ought, therefore, always to be a flat, 

 shallow pan, or plate of clean spring water 

 left within reach ; and the hen herself, glad of 

 a little refreshment after so long a task, will 

 usually lead the way to it." 



Eor the purpose of breaking open its prison- 

 house, and " seeing the light," one would think 

 that there could not be any living thing in the 

 world so ill adapted as a chick when about to 

 emerge into life. Yet Nature, in her exhaust- 

 less powers of ingenious operation, enables it 

 to do so. If the chick, however, be weakly, 

 artificial assistance is sometimes necessary to 

 give it the liberty it seeks. The position 

 which it holds in the egg is such, as frequently 

 to render it difficult for such a tender young- 

 ling to Ireak its way. The neck slopes towards 

 the belly, to about the centre of which comes 

 the head ; whilst the head reposes beneath the 

 right wing. The feet are gathered up, some- 

 thing in the style of a fowl trussed for the 

 spit ; and the claws are bent backwards to such 

 an extent as almost to touch the head. It is 

 in this confined position that the shelly wall 

 of the prison has to be broken through. Such 

 is the position; and when we consider the 

 hardness of the calcareous wall that has to be 

 reached, we can hardly conceive anything more 

 difiicult for the accomplishment of a chick. 

 " The process of eflecting the breaking of the 

 shell, is a succession of taps from the beak, by 

 which first a crack or star, with many cracks 

 diverging from it, takes place ; a hole is soon 

 efi"ected; the sides gradually chip away, and 

 the chicken enters into its new sphere of being. 



